In Sinai, Dug In To Stay On Front Line For Mideast Peace

EL GORA, SINAI DESERT, EGYPT — British Army Cpl. Colin Boophroyd is a military photographer who is used to assignments in hot spots around the world.

So you would think he would be excited about being assigned to keeping the peace between two former enemies in the volatile Middle East.

But Boophroyd finds his job rather boring. He wakes up at 6 a.m., works 13 hours, five days a week, takes pictures of patrols and visiting dignitaries, but rarely has the chance to venture outside the military compound.

He's not alone. For Boophroyd and the other roughly 2,600 men and women serving with the 11-nation Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), life can be rather uneventful. Most of their time is spent monitoring checkpoints and border crossings and handling paperwork. And at this camp in the middle of the Sinai desert, not much is likely to change.

Now marking its 10th anniversary, the MFO zone between Egypt and Israel is being looked at as a model for other troubled regions of the world.

The world's first-ever MFO was created following the Camp David Accords, in which Israel agreed to return to Egypt the Sinai peninsula, which it captured in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Both sides, with the help of the United States, agreed to deploy United Nations forces in the Sinai to ensure Israel's withdrawal and to monitor the cease-fire.

But Arab countries, like Syria, were opposed to Egypt's treaty with Israel, and they asked their biggest ally to intervene. That's when the Soviet Union threatened to veto a U.N. role. Israel, Egypt and the United States then agreed to form the MFO, which went into action in 1982.

Few people doubt that the MFO has been successful in lowering tension between Egypt and Israel. Most MFO officials say their biggest contribution has been to break the psychology of warfare between the two countries and to build up trust.

''I don't think anyone wants our presence in the long run, but in the meantime, our biggest contribution is to break barriers between different sides while proving our neutrality,'' said Col. Dave Rooke, head of the liaison system and head of the Canadian contingent.

Many MFO officials argue that more such units should be created to separate warring factions in places such as Yugoslavia. And should the Middle East peace talks engineer peace between Israel and Syria, an MFO force seems to be the likeliest option to serve in a demilitarized Golan Heights. MFO officials also argue that such a force is better equipped to do the peacekeeping job than a U.N. team.

The MFO's success has come under unlikely circumstances. Even though it is equipped with everything from MFO traffic control police to naval patrol and jet fighters, its mandate calls only for observing peace; it has no power to enforce it. In cases of cease-fire violations by either side, the MFO is entitled only to investigate the incident, issue a report to its headquarters in Rome and send copies to the Egyptian and Israeli governments, hoping the violations will not be repeated.

Before the MFO was established, Egypt and Israel had registered complaints of border violations. Since then, MFO officials say both sides have shown great interest in observing the peace.

''Last year, there were only 16 violations, but when you talk about violations, you are talking about a soldier getting lost and crossing the border or an aircraft flying about 100 feet inside the other's borders,'' said U.S. Col. Bruce Malston, MFO chief of staff.

The MFO has two camps in Egypt and one in Israel. In Egypt, they are in El Gora, about 200 miles from Cairo, and in the Red Sea coast city of Sharm El Sheikh, a major tourist attraction. The MFO's headquarters in Israel is located in Tel Aviv.

The village nearest Egypt's north camp is El Arish, about a 45-minute drive. Big Egyptian cities are farther. Cairo is a five-hour drive, while it takes two hours to get to Tel Aviv. The south camp staff stays either by the beach or travels to Israel. The Tel Aviv personnel spend most of their time traveling in the Jewish state.

By and large, the MFO staff lives in its compound, which resembles a small city. It imports food, has its own fire department, cinema, video store, recreation facilities, library, even an American school for soldiers who want to continue their education.

In most cases, there is little contact between MFO workers and the native Israelis or the Egyptians. This is partly because of scheduling and location. But another reason seems to be miscommunication between the MFO officials and soldiers.